Thread: XL-entLady's Account Talk

I wish I could give you advice on authors. All I've been reading is found through Google.

I may have some books on my external hard drive, but I can't access them until next week.

In addition to the O'Neill title, Sarah of the OMB, aka Birchtree's Goddess, recommended "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets" by John J Murphy; "Beat the Market" (1967) and "Beat the Dealer," both by E.O. Thorpe and S.T. Kassouf. Have not even looked at them but wanted to throw the titles in here. YMMV of course.

For anyone who still has IFTs and is interested, here are this week's updates on the simple moving averages. Maybe that's why so many of us are in G Fund, huh.

My thanks to those who gave me comments in this thread and by PM in response to my questions!

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,G Fund,,,,F Fund,,,C Fund,,,S Fund,,,I Fund
10 day SMA: ,,+0.0%,,,,+0.1%,,,,-0.8%,,,,-1.2%,,,,-0.6%
20 day SMA: ,,+0.1%,,,,+0.3%,,,,-0.5%,,,,-0.6%,,,,-2.9%
50 day SMA: ,,+0.4%,,,,+0.7%,,,+0.1%,,,+0.1%,,,-5.8%
100 day SMA: ,+0.7%,,+0.4%,,,,-3.8%,,,,-2.5%,,,-11.1%
150 day SMA: ,+1.1%,,+0.3%,,,,-3.7%,,,,-1.5%,,,-10.8%
200 day SMA: ,+1.5%,,+0.6%,,,-5.2%,,,-2.4%,,,,-12.5%

The above numbers are the simple moving averages (SMAs) for each fund, based
on my own records and simplified by being recorded only once a week. Because I'm
trying to look at trends I've highlighted any changes < or > 0.5%. Follow the column
down in order to see how a TSP Fund is trending long-term.

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,G Fund,,,,
10 day SMA: ,,+0.0%,,,,
20 day SMA: ,,+0.1%,,,,
50 day SMA: ,,+0.4%,,,,
100 day SMA: ,+0.7%,,
150 day SMA: ,+1.1%,,
200 day SMA: ,+1.5%,,

The above numbers are the simple moving averages (SMAs) for each fund, based
on my own records and simplified by being recorded only once a week. Because I'm
trying to look at trends I've highlighted any changes < or > 0.5%. Follow the column
down in order to see how a TSP Fund is trending long-term.

Lady, in order for you to track the (G) SMA, do you utilize a specific
symbol or do you do that manually. I'd love to see a chart that would
put the (G) into perspective for me. I just didn't know if any existed.

I'd be careful about books on buying stocks. In my experience, most of them deal with how to make money buying individual stocks. When it comes to investing in index funds, I've found these books to be totally worthless. Also watch out for Day-Trading books. These books expect you to be able to trade on a minute by minute basis, certainly a far cry from the limitations we have in the TSP.

I'd recommend books on reading charts, technical analysis, that kind of thing before I'd get any more of these "Wall Street Money Machine" kinds of books.

Originally Posted by squalebear

Lady, in order for you to track the (G) SMA, do you utilize a specific symbol or do you do that manually. I'd love to see a chart that would put the (G) into perspective for me. I just didn't know if any existed.

I wish I knew of a specific symbol that tracks the G Fund, SB, but no. I track it and all the other funds manually by plugging a weekly TSP share price from the TSP website in to a multi-sheet XL workbook I've developed over the years to look at various things in my and my spouse's TSP accounts. By tracking manually, I don't have to worry about adjusting for differences between actual fund price and TSP fund price.

As an aside, a few years ago I tried to develop some IF/THEN formulas to determine what my allocations should be based on the SMAs, but when I tracked the results it wasn't much help.

Lady

Originally Posted by Dr Faustus

I'd be careful about books on buying stocks. In my experience, most of them deal with how to make money buying individual stocks. When it comes to investing in index funds, I've found these books to be totally worthless. Also watch out for Day-Trading books. These books expect you to be able to trade on a minute by minute basis, certainly a far cry from the limitations we have in the TSP.

I'd recommend books on reading charts, technical analysis, that kind of thing before I'd get any more of these "Wall Street Money Machine" kinds of books.

Thanks for your good advice, Dr. Faustus! It certainly makes sense, given that our 2 IFTs and 6 to 80 hour lag times make our trading a different breed of cat.

A couple of folks have PM'ed me with the title of a college textbook on technical analysis. I've ordered it and am hoping that I can eventually make sense of what it's telling me. I've taken college classes several different times in my life to acquire new skills or brush up on old ones, but the last time was several years ago!

Thanks again,
Lady

Originally Posted by XL-entLady

As an aside, a few years ago I tried to develop some IF/THEN formulas to determine what my allocations should be based on the SMAs, but when I tracked the results it wasn't much help. Lady

Thanks for letting me know about the (G). Its funny you mentioned
the IF/THEN formula within a spreadsheet. I need to learn that myself
as I developed a Retirement Speadsheet which includes 3 high, TSP
Balances, Income, expenses, budgets, and a whole gambit of formulas
which needs fine tuning (OCD). I use MS Works spreadsheet as I find
it easier to use then MS Excel. If you know of any sites that could
help out a trainee, it would help a great deal. Again, thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by squalebear

Its funny you mentioned the IF/THEN formula within a spreadsheet. I need to learn that myself .... I use MS Works spreadsheet as I find it easier to use then MS Excel. If you know of any sites that could help out a trainee, it would help.

I've never used Works because I learned XL years ago when it became the standard at work for the accounting spreadsheets. (Before that it was QuattroPro - do any of you remember that one? I loved it!)

Anyway, I don't know what similarities or differences there might be between Works and XL, but when I was learning the formula, I tried to look at it like a spoken sentence. For example:

=(IF(C4>0,+C4/H4,0))

"If the value of C4 is greater than zero then insert the value of the C4 cell divided by the value of the H4 cell; but if not then insert 0."

As you probably already know, you can copy that formula wherever you want in the spreadsheet, but if you want any part of it to be fixed (always referring to the exact same cell) rather than relative, you need to insert a $ ($H$4 instead of H4, for example).

Good luck, brother SB, and please let me know if you get stuck and I'd be happy to see if I can help. Spreadsheets are my life!

Lady

QuattroPro and Lotus123 run circles around MS XL and Works....MS products are NOT user-friendly. Excellent marketing, not user preference, has made them the "standard." Vista is the lastest example of the MS Monster gone wild.

Originally Posted by luv2read

QuattroPro and Lotus123 run circles around MS XL and Works....MS products are NOT user-friendly. Excellent marketing, not user preference, has made them the "standard." Vista is the lastest example of the MS Monster gone wild.

You are so, so right on! The computer I use runs on a Vista platform and I cannot express the depth of my loathing for it! It's Jabba the Hut: bloated, ugly, contrary and mean, but with inadequate security measures!!

Lady